101 services changed ownership: from whom and to whom, the details
ANALYSIS.29 May 2025.
The Busy Bees chain bought four privately-owned independent early childhood education services last year, bringing the total number of centres the company operates across New Zealand to more than 80.
Bright Beginnings ELC Peachgrove Rd, School of
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Anyone thinking about getting a job in ECE working in ECE or thinking about moving to a different service will find clear, practical information in this article about pay rates, employment conditions, and what to expect in different roles. It explains everything from starting salaries and pay‑step calculations to workplace rights, benefits, and how to recognise a supportive, professional environment.
Discover the key organisations and sector groups shaping early childhood education in New Zealand – who they are, what they do, and how they influence the services, policies, and people at the heart of the ECE sector.
Getting a job. How can my ECE qualification help me to get a job? With an early childhood teaching qualification you may find yourself attractive
FULL REFERENCE: Summers, T. & Kamp, A. (2023). Female social justice leaders in the early childhood profession: A narrative inquiry on the origins of leadership. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 25, pp. 29 – 43.
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ABSTRACT: Sonja Davies, Kai Tahu, 1923-2005, was dedicated to social justice in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa) across various arenas, including early childhood education. She received the Queen’s Service award in 1987 and was a member of Parliament from 1987 to 1993. This article, drawn from kaupapa Māori, narrative research, investigates Sonja’s life with a focus on her upbringing, family, and contributions to early childhood. Sonja’s story, compiled from autobiographies, interview and document sources, was analysed thematically to explore the origins of her leadership. The analysis revealed that the origins of Sonja’s leadership are found in role models, personal struggles, mana wahine and social norms. Her leadership had a cost and was influenced by gender and generational contexts. Sonja’s leadership skills, combined with the social, economic, and cultural context that existed for her generation, enabled her to address inequities and to achieve change in the social justice sphere. Sonja’s story is important due to its place in time and history and because female leaders are underrepresented in the leadership literature. Drawing on Sonja’s story and the literature this article argues that the origins of Sonja’s leadership offer insights for the development of current and future leaders in early childhood education and beyond.
KEY WORDS: Sonja Davies, early childhood leadership, social justice, politics of childcare.
INTRODUCTION
Lyman et al (2012) states that “there is no universal understanding of social justice leadership amongst scholars” (p.4). Despite this lack of common understanding, the importance of leadership is acknowledged in the early childhood education sector in Aotearoa. Scholars also recognise that historical narratives of early childhood leaders have the potential to make an important contribution to leadership and practice (May et al., 2021). Sonja Davies has influenced early childhood education from a historical perspective in Aotearoa, New Zealand. When Sonja learned about her Māori ancestry and discovered her whakapapa (see Glossary for Māori terms) later in life she learnt the importance of identity for supporting her leadership. Given Sonja’s identity as a Māori woman the research reported on in this article draws on Māori leadership literature and reflects a kaupapa Māori perspective. The focus on Te ao Māori in this article also reflects the context of Aotearoa as a bicultural nation and the researcher’s identity as a wahine Māori.
Spring naturally prompts conversations about seasons, weather, temperature, and changes in nature.
As every child is unique in an early childhood setting, there will be children with additional needs.
These could be physical differences, such as children with cerebral palsy or who are vision or hearing impaired; or it could be less visible conditions such as autism spectrum disorders or behavioural difficulties.
Regardless of the type of
The Government is pushing ahead with a proposal to shift ECE regulatory functions and the new Director of Regulation role from the Ministry of Education to the Education Review Office.
Research on differences in perspectives on quality and evaluation held by managers, teachers and parents at early childhood centres.
FULL REFERENCE: Zhang, Q. (2018). Delineating and reconciling various perspectives on quality in New Zealand early childhood services. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 21(1), 76 – 87.
ABSTRACT: In the context of evaluation of the quality of an early childhood service, tension can be created when internal stakeholders (e.g., manager, teachers, and parents) have a different perspective on what constitutes quality compared to an external evaluation authority. This study aims to delineate such perspectival differences and explore approaches to mediating the tensions. Data is comprised of individual interviews with 27 participants from nine early childhood services (one manager, one teacher, and one parent from each service) in a North Island city of New Zealand as well as the relevant Education Review Office documents. A combination of theoretical thematic analysis and deductive qualitative analysis captures three areas of difference in perspective between the sampled early childhood services and Education Review Office documents: level of compliance, appropriateness of practice, and robustness of evaluation. In an attempt to exemplify a multiple-lens approach to addressing the three areas of difference, three theoretical lenses are considered: the self-review framework, practical hermeneutics, and critical pragmatism.
Key words: Early childhood, quality, evaluation, multiple perspectives.
INTRODUCTION
Quality early childhood education has become a priority policy area for many jurisdictions in the world (Fenech, 2011; Jackson, 2015; Logan, Press, & Sumsion, 2012). Although quality of an early childhood service is traditionally viewed to be measurable against a set of universally applicable standards (e.g., Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2005), more recent literature highlights its value-laden and contextual nature (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007; Dalli, et al., 2011). Researchers recognise that different stakeholders may have different perspectives on quality of early childhood services, as vividly expressed in the parody ‘quality is in the eye of the beholder’ (Farquhar, 1993; Pence & Moss, 1994). In the context of quality evaluation of early childhood services, this can create tensions for both teaching practice and quality evaluation, particularly when a consensus cannot be reached. The present study explores ways to ‘deal with’ the tensions.
Quality and quality evaluation of early childhood services in international contexts
Cashflow Management.
How do we cope with huge cash inflows from the MoE three times a year then famine in between?
The simplest way is to put into a separate bank account all the advances received each four months and then transfer it into the normal bank account monthly. You will also need some capital of your own in the bank to cover the c
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